US Stocks Slumped Yesterday As Heat From Weakening Euro Worsened

US stocks finished slightly lower yesterday, led by industrials Caterpillar CAT, Boeing BA and 3M MMM, as the fear of the US companies doing business in the Eurozone getting hurt by the weak euro loomed large on investors. The losses at the Standard & Poor's 500 wiped out the measure’s gain for 2010. The Dow Jones Industrial Average tripped 66.58 points, or 0.63%, to 10444.37, although remained 0.16% up for the year. The Nasdaq Composite fell 18.89 points, or 0.82%, to 2298.37, but maintained its position in the black with a year-to-date gain of 1.29%. The Standard & Poor's 500 lost 5.75 points, or 0.51%, to 1115.05, almost flat for the year. The Dow's financial stocks gained on the news of the Senate preparing to vote on the legislation overhauling Wall Street regulation. Bank of America Corp BAC climbed 2.3%, American Express AXP and JP Morgan Chase JPM went up almost 1% each and Travelers TRV rose 0.6%. The Dow’s worst performer came in the form of CAT that plunged 2.8%, to $61.44. Meanwhile, BA was stripped off 2.2% to $66.21 and 3M shed 1.1% to $82.54. At the S&P 500, financials were up, whereas the industrial sector led to the measure’s downturn. Axel Merk, president of currency-focused Merk Mutual Funds said, "I think we'll have a lot of volatility related to events in the euro-zone for some time, but eventually it will die down as people get used to the way the policy makers there are dealing with things. At some point, we'll begin to focus on where the next crisis might be.” Read more from Benzinga's Markets.